I'm on the move.....

I'm shifting everything over to my new blog, Moon and Hare, so this will be my last post on my Moon Bindery blog. Hope you will come over for a visit: http://moonandhare.blogspot.com/  :)

Eco Friendly Leather Journal

Yesterday, I finished a new leather journal for my Etsy shop. The writing paper in this journal is made from a combination of recycled paper and coffee fibre. The paper is soft and has a nice laid pattern. I really like the random designs the coffee fibre makes in the writing paper, too.

I call it the "Tree of Life" journal, because of the tree of life charm on the attached bookmark, and also because the paper is recycled, so no trees are cut down to make it.

Book Arts: Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg, France, besides being the capitol of the European Union, has a wonderful history relating to crafts and craft guilds, which includes a strong connection to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg for a time, and is commemorated in various ways:


Here is a statue of Gutenberg that resides in the Place Gutenberg:



The decorations on the statue were very interesting. They focus on the symbolic value of the printing press -- how it opened up a world of music and literature and ideas:



In the historic centre of Strasbourg, I visited the Palais Rohan, which houses the Decorative Arts Museum, Fine Arts Museum and Archaeological Museum:



There are some finely worked bindings made by local craftspeople there, including this one made by Johannes Beck in 1731:



After stopping off for a bit of refreshment at a wonderfully mad little cafe full of birds (artificial) and fairy lights.....



....I went on to the Strasbourg historical museum, located at 2 rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Poissons.

They have information about Gutenberg's time in Strasbourg, and about the history of printing in the city. Strasbourg had a number of printing establishments in the early days of the printing press. There are also some beautiful books from the late 1400s on display:





If you know of any other interesting book arts-related places to visit in Strasbourg, do feel free to share them in the comments.

Mini Halfwood Press

I bought a Mini Halfwood etching press a while back, and am really loving it. The bed of this little press is 6" x 16." I'm planning to use it to make miniature books, so it's just the right size for me. I've had huge fun using it, and I must confess I've gotten embarrassingly attached to the little beast -- almost to the point of giving it a name. I haven't done it yet. But.

Printmaker Bill Ritchie invented the Mini Halfwood, as well as other tabletop presses. He says on his website that he wanted his presses to have the feel of a sailing ship interior, and his presses are wonderfully elegant looking, as well as functional.

I've been playing around with different tools to see what kind of drypoint marks they make. Above is one of my scribblings, printed on the Mini Halfwood using Arches 88 paper. I've found that some of my bookbinding awls make interesting lines.

Below, I printed the same plate on handmade paper:

Book Arts Links: United States

Here are some links to book arts-related places in the U.S. Haven't been to them all myself -- maybe someday! I'll be updating and adding more links as I find more to add. Right now, this is a quick and dirty list -- I'll fix it up more and make it look pretty when I get the time.

If you know of some other great book arts places to visit in the U.S., please let me know about them in the comments section, and I'll add them to the list.

State Centers for the Book: The Library of Congress website has listings for all 50 state centers for the book. They are non-affiliated organizations, and their programs vary quite a bit, but I'm including this website, as some of the state centers may have postings about book arts - related events.

http://read.gov/cfb/state-affiliates.php

Alabama

University of Alabama M.F.A. in the Book Arts Program
http://www.bookarts.ua.edu/

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

The American Bookbinders Museum - http://www.bookbindersmuseum.com/

The San Francisco Center for the Book: http://sfcb.org/

Bay Area Book Artists' Book Arts Jam: http://www.bookartsjam.org/index.php

Pacific Center for the Book Arts: http://pcba.info/

Sonoma County Book Arts Guild, Sebastopol, CA (www.socobag.blogspot.com)

Colorado

Conneticut

Delaware

Florida

University of Tampa Book Arts Studio: http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/

Georgia

Georgia Tech Paper Museum

Hawaii

Idaho

Jim Croft -- Old Ways Bookbinding Workshops: http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

(I blogged about attending one of Jim Croft's workshops -- you can find the posts here)

Illinois

Chicago

Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute
http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm4/about_jfabc.php?CISOROOT=/jfabc
Newberry Library
http://www.newberry.org
Columbia College Center for the Book and Paper Arts
http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/index.php?site=CBPA
Northwestern University Library - Special collections
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections
University of Chicago Library - Special collections
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl
Bookman's Alley-Evanston
http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html
Powell's Bookstores
http://www.powellschicago.com

Center for Book and Paper Arts: http://www.colum.edu/book_and_paper/

Indiana

Iowa

University of Iowa Center for the Book

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Pyramid Atlantic

Massachusetts

Boston Paper Collective: http://bostonpapercollective.wordpress.com/about/

North Bennet Street School (has bookbinding courses): http://www.nbss.org/

Carriage House Paper's papermaking museum in Brookline, just outside of Boston (by appointment)

Michigan

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center: http://www.kalbookarts.org/index.html

Minnisota

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Cave Paper (in Minneapolis): http://www.cavepaper.com/

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

Wells College Book Arts Center: http://www.wells.edu/bkarts/info.htm

Western New York Book Arts Center (http://www.wnybookarts.org/

Women's Studio Workshop

Genesee Center for the Arts: http://www.geneseearts.org/

New York City:

The New York Center for Book Arts: http://www.centerforbookarts.org/

Dieu Donne : http://www.dieudonne.org/

Lower Eastside Printshop

Bright Hill Press & Literary Center: http://www.brighthillpress.org

The Morgan Library: http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

Booklyn artist's book alliance: http://www.booklyn.org/index.php

Central Booking: http://centralbookingnyc.com/

Calvin-Morris Gallery (sometimes has artist book exhibitions) : http://www.cavinmorris.com/

New York Central Art Supply (has book art supplies): http://www.nycentralart.com/

North Carolina

Asheville Book Works

Penland

North Dakota

Ohio

Dard Hunter's Studios http://www.dardhunter.com

Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland http://www.morganconservatory.org/

Paper Circle (South East Ohio's Center for Paper and Book Arts): http://www.papercircle.org/

Oklahoma

Oregon

C.C. Stern Type Foundry  http://www.ccsterntype.org/

Pennsylvania

University of the Arts - Bookarts

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Museum of Printing History in Houston, TX. The Houston Book Arts Group meets there.

Utah

Book Arts Program at the University of Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Seattle Center for Book Arts: http://seattlebookarts.org/

Book Arts Guild: http://bookartsguild.org/

University of Washington Book Arts Collection: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/collections/bookarts.html

Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers (they sell artist books): http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html?id=2QbhcRj6

Washington, DC

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Book Arts: Florence, Italy

First off, a small confession: when I visited Florence, Italy, in early April, I was so busy looking all the beautiful things around me (it was my first visit) I didn't spend very much time seeking out bookbinding/book arts related places to visit. So my "Book Arts in Florence" post will be on the short side.

That said, I did visit a wonderful establishment called the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Sant Maria Novella. It was established in 1221 by Dominican monks, who grew medicinal herbs and used them to create medications and ointments. Here, you can see part of the interior of the pharmacy:



In 1866, a layman took over the pharmacy, and it's now open to the public and has exotic, herb based perfumes, pot-pourri, liqueurs, elixirs and more for sale. There is a small museum about the history of the pharmacy, and it's well worth a visit just for the unbelievably wonderful smells that greet you when you walk in. In one of the museum's display cases, I found a couple of magnificent herbals that had belonged to the monks:







In my rambles around Florence, I also ran across several shops selling handmade journals and marbled papers, but only thought to write down the names of a couple of them:

• Il Torchio (marbled paper and journals) at Via dei Bardi 17, San Niccolò
• Zecchi (http://www.zecchi.it/), Via dello Studio 19r. I did briefly visit Zecchi, which has marbled papers and other art supplies.

If you know of any other interesting book arts related places to visit in Florence, please feel free to suggest them in the comments section for this post, as I (and I'm sure other people) would love to know about them. :)

International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day in my own small way, I've been making some goddess - themed journal/sketchbooks:

This journal has a rustic ceramic pendant on the cover with a stamped Nile River Goddess. The Nile River Goddess is a very old symbol of fertility and strength. The woman in the photo next to the journal is Isadora Duncan, the artist and free spirit who created modern dance.

I also made a Moon Goddess journal/sketchbook:


This one is black leather, and has a full moon-shaped ceramic pendant with the image of a goddess holding the moon. I've been a bit obsessed with these little goddess images lately. Something about them makes me want to put on some flowing robes and do an Isadora Duncan-type interpretive dance. I'm afraid I might frighten the dog, though. :)

Happy International Women's Day!